Labs / Chapter 15
Chapter 15 is the interaction chapter in full force: students move from “add interactivity” to directing a behavioral system with state, pacing, synchronization, restraint, and critique.
Chapter 15 reframes interactivity as design language. This lab asks you to choreograph how a map reveals, withholds, remembers, controls, and moves so that interaction clarifies the map rather than becoming noise.
Choose or reuse a previous lab scenario. The map should need more than one behavior, but not every possible behavior.
Map scenario Audience: Primary user task: Interaction grammar: exploratory / narrative / analytic / blended What users should see first: What users may explore freely: What users should not be able to do: Most dangerous possible interaction:
Analyze my map scenario and recommend an interaction grammar: exploratory, narrative, analytic, or blended. Explain what the map should invite users to do, what it should discourage, and how much agency users should have. Then identify one interaction that sounds useful but would probably distract from the map's purpose.
Design the disclosure system for this map. Specify legend state, filter defaults, filter grouping, what is expanded/collapsed, which categories appear by default, how legend entries update when filters change, reset behavior, and mobile behavior. Include state words explicitly: expanded, collapsed, active, disabled, hidden, reset.
| Element | Default state | User action | System response | Failure avoided |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Legend | Example: Short note | Example: Short note | Example: Short note | Example: Short note |
| Filters | Example: Short note | Example: Short note | Example: Short note | Example: Short note |
| Reset | Example: Short note | Example: Short note | Example: Short note | Example: Short note |
Starter examples only; expand this in your own notes or submission document.
Design tooltip and pop-up behavior for this map. Treat hover/tap as curiosity and click as intent. Specify tooltip content, timing, mouseout behavior, mobile replacement behavior, pop-up content hierarchy, close behavior, expansion behavior, and maximum content before the user must choose More details.
Design the memory system for this map. Specify what persists across interactions, what updates automatically, what stays fixed, what resets, what a side panel or dashboard should summarize, and when users can freeze or clear values. Explain how this prevents users from repeatedly reorienting themselves.
Design layer toggles, menus, and optional locator map behavior. Specify which layers are locked, which are toggleable, whether reordering is allowed, which controls are primary vs secondary, which tools go into menus, whether a locator map is needed, and which features should be refused to prevent scope creep.
Design transition behavior for this map. Specify which state changes deserve smooth motion, which should be abrupt, duration, easing, synchronization, reduced-motion behavior, and when motion stops. Explain where smoothness would clarify continuity and where it would mislead.
Write a user flow for this interactive map. Include what users see first, what invites the next action, what happens after hover/click/filter/reset, where users are allowed to pause, where exploration is free, where the map shifts into narrative or analytic mode, and how users return to overview.
Critique this interaction design. Identify under-specified states, over-specified affordances, inconsistent states, gratuitous animation, and possible validation bias. Then recommend three subtractions and two small prompt variations to test whether the design is robust.
Compile my decisions into a production-ready Behavioral Specification. Include interaction grammar, disclosure, commitment, memory, control, motion, user flow, accessibility, mobile behavior, state synchronization rules, features explicitly excluded, testing prompts, and a self-check asking the assistant whether each behavior clarifies or clutters.
Yes, we are doing this again. That is very much the point.
Do the tiny-but-mighty judgment check. If these answers are fuzzy, revise the map idea before polishing the prompt.
For use with Prompt Cartography: Interactive Web Map Design with LLMs, CRC Press. www.promptcartography.com
Prompt Cartography